Word Origin & History

dingo 1789, Native Australian name, from Dharruk (language formerly spoken in the area of Sydney) /din-go/ "tame dog," though the English used it to describe wild Australian dogs. Bushmen continue to call the animal by the Dharruk term /warrigal/ "wild dog."

Example Sentences for dingoes

He was off in a fortnight, trappin' dingoes in the bush, or some such nonsense.

I had read that fires would keep off native dogs or dingoes.

Had I taken thy murmured blessing, my mother, for the whoop of the blacks, and Juba's low whine for the howl of the dingoes?

Let's go there, too; the dingoes are absolutely fascinating.

The bottom of the hole was filled in with dead sticks, leaves, the rotting bodies of birds and lizards, bones of rats and dingoes.

As dingoes worry sheep, the first task of a squatter is to get rid of them.

A number of dingoes serenaded us as we worked at night; what they live upon is not quite clear, unless it be spinifex rats.

There are hawks, snakes, dingoes and humans, and no one can tell for what good they exist.

Dingoes—the name given by Australian natives to the wild dogs.

On reaching the spot where the kangaroo had been killed, they caught sight of a pack of dingoes, to which they gave chase.